A French Open Referee Fined Naomi Osaka $15,000 for Skipping a News Conference
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Naomi Osaka was fined $15,000 by the French Open tournament referee on Sunday for skipping news conferences after her first-round victory. She was also threatened with stiffer penalties if she continued to shut out the media.
In a joint statement from the president of the French tennis federation, and the heads of the three other Grand Slam tournaments — the U.S. Open, the Australian Open, and Wimbledon— Osaka was warned that “should she continue to ignore her media obligations during the tournament, she would be exposing herself to possible further Code of Conduct infringement consequences.”
According to the Code of Conduct, that includes “default from the tournament (Code of Conduct article III T.) and the trigger of a major offence investigation that could lead to more substantial fines and future Grand Slam suspensions (Code of Conduct article IV A.3.).”
As if anticipating a backlash, the statement went on to defensively explain, “We want to underline that rules are in place to ensure all players are treated exactly the same, no matter their stature, beliefs or achievement. As a sport there is nothing more important than ensuring no player has an unfair advantage over another, which unfortunately is the case in this situation if one player refuses to dedicate time to participate in media commitments while the others all honour their commitments.”
A few days before the French Open began, Osaka announced on Instagram that she wouldn’t do any press during the tournament, citing mental health concerns and the desire to avoid the media’s harmful and repetitive questions. Included in the post as additional slides was a clip of a hostile exchange between an interviewer and a young Venus Williams and a video of Marshawn Lynch repeatedly answering journalists questions with “I’m just here so I won’t get fined.”
“If the organizations think they can keep saying, ‘do press or you’re going to get fined,’” she wrote, “and continue to ignore the mental health of the athletes that are the centerpiece of their cooperation then I just gotta laugh.” Osaka, who made 55 million dollars last year in prize money and endorsements, said she hoped any fines levied against her would be donated to a mental health charity.
Veteran sports journalist Matthew Futterman described Osaka as one of the most influential players in the world, citing an example from 2020 in which officials at the Western & Southern Open (a warm up for the U.S. Open) suspended play after Osaka decided to default her semifinal match in protest of police violence.
In case the significance is unclear, let me break it down for you: They literally stopped the tournament for her. What became evident then and is echoed today in her decision to avoid the press at the French Open is that Naomi Osaka realizes and is unafraid to yield her power.
It might just be that the French Open’s best match — Osaka’s influence vs. the tennis elite— happens off its famed clay courts.
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